Vittorio,
If our paper implies that the only demand is for commercial gTLDs, that is certainly an error that we should correct. Here is out thought. To the extent there is a need to subsidize nonprofit gTLDs or even commercial gTLDs directed at LDCs, the question becomes, how can the resources be made available to do this? On that question, an auction plan has a tremendous advantage, because it will bring in resources from commercial gTLD auctions, which then can subsidize the nonprofit gTLD sector. The current system, beauty contests, is enormously expensive, and limits the nonprofit sTLD sector to the most wealthy nonprofits and international organizations. This is truly the worst of all possible worlds. Are you familiar with the experience of regulatory agencies using a public-interest (beauty contest) approach for spectrum allocation. That experience has been uniformly dismal--large commercial interests have inevitably dominated the process. Even if the ICANN board brings the best of intentions to the process, over 75 years of experience suggests that if commercial interests compete with public interests in a beauty contest scheme, the commercial interests will win out in the long run. Auctions channel the commercial gTLD pressures into competitive bidding, leaving ICANN free from those pressures (and with greater resources) to deal with public interest issues.
Thank you for the very informative response.
Lawrence SolumLawrence Solum